AwesomenessTV is a big deal, even if you've never heard of it

C'mon admit it: Before DreamWorks Animation snapped up the popular YouTube channel this week in a $33-million deal ($117 million if certain performance goals are met), most of you hadn't a clue. But for teens and tweens, Santa Monica-based AwesomenessTV is another of the well-watched alternatives to traditional television. The DreamWorks sale follows similar acquisitions of YouTube channels - part of the betting by investment firms and media companies on this growing and still somewhat hidden slice of the media market. The YouTube folks hosted a reception in NY last night for advertisers where they extolled the quality of content found on many of the site's thousands of channels. That's a matter of opinion - and frankly, many YouTube efforts have fallen flat. But with so much content being churned out, something has to work, right? The question, as usual, is how does it pencil out? As part of its deal with DreamWorks, Awesomeness will remain on YouTube, though additional channels will be developed using the Glendale animation company's resources. From ATD's Peter Kafka:

If you were a skeptic, or a YouTube competitor, you might argue that YouTube had stopped trying to promote "real" stars on its site, because it spent the last year doing that, and many of those projects have underwhelmed. You might also note that, unlike other Web video sellers, YouTube spent very little time trying to convince advertisers that it was willing to sell them video ads the way many advertisers want to buy them -- that is, the way they buy TV ads.

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The flip sides of those arguments: Every other Web video site pitching at this week's "newfront" sales events are making a big deal of the TV and movie stars they've signed on -- Yahoo has Ed Helms! AOL has Sarah Jessica Parker! Hulu has Seth Meyers! -- so YouTube's approach will help set them apart. And while lots of people would like YouTube to approach sales the way old-media buyers like to approach sales, that's not very Googley.

A recent piece in Fast Company lays out what's going on:

The new obsession is intellectual property, content that the creator can own and repurpose forever. Setting up shop on YouTube is seen as getting in on the cable TV of the 21st century. Equity stakes have replaced the quick-and-dirty up-front cash deal. "Folks in the entertainment world realized that equity is how people get rich," says Chris Sacca, a Googler turned investor who recently launched a dedicated digital entertainment fund and tapped Matt Mazzeo, a former agent at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), to be lead investor.

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No one is embracing tech more passionately than the talent agencies, which have seen their traditional business shrink since the glory days of $20 million deals for rising stars like Jim Carrey. (That's how long ago those days were.) They are transforming themselves in order to get behind startups and other companies with an eye toward long-term growth. "We're about being in business with our clients," says Jeremy Zimmer, CEO of United Talent Agency, making clear that it doesn't matter if that business is a sitcom or a startup.

It's worth noting that Zimmer worked with Awesomeness founder Brian Robbins in developing a business plan for the channel and then helped negotiate the DreamWorks deal.